Hoping I can find a little help here. My dad who is now (78yo) had in his possession (until I "borrowed" it), what I thought was a Washburn Mandolin. Since I was a kid, it only had three rusty strings on it. The history as far as I know is that my dad was a kid, told his buddy's dad that if he ever wanted to get rid of it that he would take it. That was sometime in the late '40's or '50's. Well, his buddy gave it to my dad when he got out of the US Navy in 1959.

Fast forward to today. I restrung it a few months ago because I am a guitar player and I wanted to teach myself some of the basics. My church is doing a somewhat folk type song from a band called "Rend Collective". Anyhow, I thought it would sound great with this "mandolin". I had a blast tonight and it sounded great !

Now I am curious.... the label on the inside says that this is a "Cremonatone" No. 127123. I tried to polish it up a bit using some Gibson guitar polish on it, but realized after doing a small area that I think I did more harm than good so I stopped trying to clean it.

I will post some pictures of it. Hoping to get some advice or feedback from you all about what I should do to polish the metal and the wood on it. If someone could suggest an approximate age, that would be cool. It is an heirloom that I would not even consider selling. Kind of like my '64 Gibson ES-335!

As far as polishing the wood, my suggestion would be don't. Same with the metal. If you feel it needs some cleanup, the best thing would probably be a slightly damp soft cloth. With an instrument of this age with the type of lacquer used, anything else may damage it.

A fine Style 122 Washburn, manufactured around 1900, one of the earlier 122s to receive the extension fingerboard. Beautiful condition, and I love the 'clown shoe' case! The Gibson stuff will not harm the finish, as long as you apply it sparingly, and to the cloth. Good luck!

Wow ! Thanks so much for the replies. Mhy dad is going to be exstatic to hear ! As for the clown shoe, don't laugh but when I was a real young lad, I remember that I used to slide my leg into the case and hobble around the house with it!